Thread: Pushing the limit of the N900
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Rushmore is offline Rushmore
2009-11-15 , 15:33
Posts: 1,255 | Thanked: 393 times | Joined on Oct 2009 @ US
#18
Originally Posted by solpete View Post
This is because it doesnt multitask at all, in contrary to what everyone seems to believe. Play quake on it, tab to youtube and quake will stop. Same thing with web browsing. Tab to other app and the webbrowser will pause and stop playing flash content.

Its NOT multitasking, its just app-pausing. Some apps are, however, allowing real multitasking such as mp3 playback.

you can put 100 windows up, the only thing that will happen is that you will run out of swap-space.

Same thing goes to all current phones btw, so its not just this one.
This is correct (kind of)- for some programs and operations. Just like a desktop, "everything" is not actually running full speed in the background. Some are placed into a register stack or wait state and prioritized based on application. They are consuming memory and some clock due to wait state, but are not actually running full in parallel with other programs, but some operate in full when selected as primary or application.

Still, the N900 demos I have seen had several browser sessions running and they were actually active in the icons at the same time (the videos were playing in them). This is AMAZING for a device like this.

Another I saw was a guy running programs and using a resource hungry P2P session. That is IMPRESSIVE for a device this size.

In summary, the N900 appears to multi-task like a PC does, but it is a misnomer that everything is always running full speed at the same time. PC's do not do this either- all the time for all programs.

The N900 is a true mini PC, where as the iPhone is like an ASIC with a display ie (one task circuit).

Added:

My quad 4 desktop runs into the same problems with Flash and other things running at once. Maemo and the 3430 chipset are a perfect match and a better option than using snapdragon.
Last edited by Rushmore; 2009-11-15 at 15:41.